The Asus Zenbook range has just received its latest upgrade. The ASUS Zenbook S 16 (UM5606) is the latest ultra-thin and ultra-powerful notebook, and this one aims to give digital creatives the freedom to create anything from videos to hand-drawn animation.
As its name implies, the Zenbook is all about aesthetics, clean lines, and creative output, all wrapped up in a small form factor that makes this notebook ultra-portable.
Impressively, when the lid is closed, this notebook’s total height is just 11 mm, and it weighs only 1.5kg in total.
When it comes to connectivity, this device has only a few I/O ports, including two USB-C ports (one is used to charge the battery), a single USB 3.2 port, an SD Card reader, an HDMI port, and one 3.5mm audio jack. Considering how thin this notebook body is, there isn’t any space to add more ports as the chassis tapers down towards the front edges.
When you open the notebook, you are greeted with a beautiful touch-sensitive 16-inch screen. There’s even an Asus Pen 2.0 bundled with this notebook if you’d like to get creative directly on the screen. I also love that I can scroll web pages as I read them, using just my thumb, when I’m sitting back in my chair. The screen resolution offered by this notebook is also more pixels than your average HD screen. In fact, this one is a 3K screen which has a resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels. The screen looks really crisp and I appreciate the inclusion of a feature that dims the screen when you look away. It’s also a bit of added security for prying eyes in public spaces, and it saves battery power.
Another really nice feature of this notebook is the large touchpad that measures almost 150mm x 100mm. With the added touchpad real estate, navigating Adobe tools, for example, feels a lot more natural, and I got used to not using my mouse for video editing quite quickly. There is a nice tactile click when you press on the touchpad, and it features built-in smart gestures. This means you can adjust your screen brightness and audio volume by swiping up or down the sides of the touchpad. You can also fast-forward or rewind video playback by swiping backwards or forwards at the top part of the touchpad.
Looking at the keyboard, it sports white LED backlighting and a good typing experience thanks to the Asus ErgoSense keyboard. The low-profile keys offer a short travel distance and satisfying feedback when you press a key. For the AI enthusiasts out there, you’ll be happy to see the inclusion of a Windows Co-Pilot key to the right of the spacebar.
Let’s get to the business end of this notebook: the Asus Zenbook S 16 runs on AMD Ryzen architecture, and its basic graphics capabilities are powered by the AMD Radeon 890M integrated GPU, which is currently AMD’s most powerful iGPU.
This means you can play most games on low to medium settings. As a notebook gamer who uses a high-end machine, I was really impressed by how well the Asus Zenbook S 16 manages my game catalogue.
I spent hours on weekends playing Dave the Diver on the couch and throwing just about every indie game I have at this machine. The Radeon 890M handles gaming surprisingly well, especially if you are a casual gamer not chasing the most graphically intensive games. Having said that, most AAA games should run on low settings quite easily. Ironically, this is where the beautiful 3k resolution may hinder a game’s performance; the Radeon 890M really shines at 1080p gaming. For example, playing Cyberpunk 2077 at the Zenbook’s full-screen resolution yielded frame rates of around 30fps at the game’s lowest graphical setting. Playing the game at 1080p in a window gives us a much more enjoyable 56fps. So, if you don’t mind playing some games in a borderless window, you truly could play almost any game on this PC.
The built-in speakers also deliver a really great audio experience. They’re reasonably loud at full volume for the size of the speakers and have fantastic audio fidelity. You may annoy your colleagues in the office, but at least they’ll know you’re having a good time.
In terms of battery life, the Asus Zenbook S 16 delivers equally impressive results. Using it as my daily driver for work, I got some impressive battery results. Running heavy tasks like video editing and rendering gave me about four hours of battery life. On the days that I was writing and managing the web, and some design work, I got well over eight hours. Of course, should you game on battery, this number will come down quite significantly.
I think it is safe to say that ultra-thin notebooks like this Zenbook s 16 are no longer relegated to the office.
This AMD machine offers superb productivity performance if you are a creative using tools like Adobe’s Creative Cloud for graphic design or even video editing. The 32GB of RAM installed will ensure your apps feel responsive and snappy, while the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is capable of crunching the big numbers you throw at it with ease. The overall user experience on this notebook is fantastic, and it’s making me think twice about my next upgrade.
At just over R40,000, the Asus Zenbook S 16 is a high-end, ultra-thin notebook, but its impressive performance will entice users looking for a game-capable production machine.